Home-made oven-fresh cakes and breads are something that are greatly appreciated. Apart from the actual gastronomical experience, the progress of baking is instructive to children. However, making a home-baked product in the traditional way often means a lot of effort before and after baking and sometimes uncertain results.
Modern technology has come to assistance by offering automatic baking machine which produce baked products by simply having all the ingredients put together into a single machine, the rest of the process will then be taken care of by the machine. With such machines, a cake will be table-ready with minimal effort some time after ingredients are introduced into the machine. However, currently available automatic baking machines have shortcomings that have hindered their optimum performance.
A fully automatic baking machine usually comprises a main housing having internal and external circumferential walls between which electric heating elements, motor driving means and other electronic components are mounted. The baking chamber inside which the actual baking is performed is usually defined by the enclosure formed between the internal circumferential wall and a top lid for covering the main housing.
Similar to traditional cooking wares, the baking container for this type of baking machine usually has a substantially U-shaped cross section. The U-shaped container together means that if the baked product is to be removed with minimal shape distortion, the removal is best done by turning the baking container up-side down so that the baked product can be removed by gravity.
While most baking containers nowadays are manufactured with a non-stick coating, sticking of the baked product to the walls of the baking container does sometimes occur and it is not unusual that a scraper type tool is needed to help removing it. However, scraping inevitably causes scratches to the coating and would result in further aggravation of the damage to the non-stick coating, thus running into a vicious circle.
Furthermore, automatic baking machines are almost invariably provided with a stirring-blade for ingredient mixing or dough kneading. This stirring-blade is usually mounted at the bottom of the baking container and is connected to a motor driving means mounted on the main housing of the machine via coupling means. When baking is complete, this stirring-blade will usually become entrenched inside the body of the baked product. Such entrenchment usually makes it more difficult to remove the baked product without damaging its shape.
To avoid frequent disturbances of the electrical and electronic arrangements within the baking machine so that the service life of a machine would not be unduly shortened, most machines are therefore provided with a removable baking container which can be lifted out of the baking machine for cleaning and product removal.
Baking machines having a removable baking container invariably have an internal circumferential wall enclosing the baking chamber. This internal wall is usually made of a heat conductive material and is provided mainly for safety reasons so that a user will not be burnt or electrocuted due to accidental contact with the heating elements. This shielding wall also helps to prevent foreign matter from being caught by the heating elements and causing fire hazards.
However, such an internal wall means extra materials and higher costs which could have been saved if a baking machine having no shielding wall between the baking container and the heating elements can be provided. This is of course presupposed by a deign which is capable of resolving, or, at least mitigating, the above problems of removal of the baked product.
A further advantage of such a baking machine is the improvement of energy efficiency since the baking container wall and the internal wall of the main housing are now combined into one piece, air gaps between the container wall and the internal wall are no longer present and heat energy can therefore be transmitted more effectively to the baking container.